Silvia Pikal

Samsung has unveiled LTE (Long-Term Evolution) versions of its GALAXY S II smartphone and GALAXY Tab 8.9. Displayed at this week’s IFA 2011, the devices will have access to 4G download speeds of up to 100Mbps. If you can get yourself onto a 4G network, the (theoretical) upload speed is 50Mbps and double that when downloading. Samsung equates this to downloading a four-minute MP3 track in 0.3 seconds.

Hector Trevino was lamenting on the “3 or 4 basic templates” that electric guitars have been constructed from in the last half century. Trevino decided to try and reinvent the electric guitar, and create something that would stand out from all the solid-body electric guitars on the market. After two years of planning and building, Trevino came up with the “Sonic Wind” guitar, which has an open chamber body and a through neck.

AatmaStudio has released a cool concept video for the iPhone 5. It looks awesome, but how likely is it that the iPhone 5 could actually have the features shown in the video? Ultra thin design, for example, might be possible. Smartphones are getting thinner and thinner, with the title of the world’s slimmest smartphone currently held by the Medias N-04C from Japanese company NEC Casio Mobile. At 7.7mm, the Android handset beats both the Galaxy S II and iPhone 4 when it comes to slimness.

The new Wacom Inkling should make things a lot easier for artists, illustrators, graphic designers and pretty much everyone who doodles on real paper with a ballpoint pen and then needs to get it onto a computer. With the Inkling, you use the included ballpoint pen to doodle whatever your heart desires, and a wireless receiver stores the sketch digitally.

A bird-like surveillance drone crashed in southwestern Pakistan late last week, close to the Afghan border. Some spare parts and a camera were found with it, but they are not pictured. The Pakistani Frontier Corps in Baluchistan province recovered the drone, and they declared it to be an “American surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle."

The Taga Bike isn't cheap at $1495, but the thing does combine a bike and stroller, and some strollers cost $400 or more, depending on just how fancy the features are. And how cool would it be to transform a bike into a stroller in 20 seconds?

Scientists at New Orleans' Tulane University have discovered a microorganism that converts cellulose into butanol, which can be substituted for gasoline. The scientists first found the organism, named TU-103, in animal droppings. Once they cultivated it, they found success using newspapers as the cellulose source. The advantage of using this organism is that it is able to produce butanol in the presence of oxygen, while other butanol-producing bacteria require an oxygen-free environment, which increases production costs.

Nicholas Allegra, known as Comex to the iPhone world, will be starting an internship with Apple in early September. Comex announced on Twitterthat he will start the internship "the week after next." He gained notoriety last year when he released a web-based JailbreakMe exploit for the iPhone 4 while a member of the iPhone Dev Team.

Someone went home with a TouchPad running Android 2.2, and they are selling it on eBay for $1,275. Shahzeb Jiwani has also come into possession of an HP TouchPad running Android 2.2... and to the delight of developers and the Android community, he’s decided to make a ROM available on RootzWiki, so everyone who owns one of the $99 tablets can run Android on their tablet.

An international team of researchers have discovered a planet they think is made of diamond crystals. The planet is located in our very own Milky Way galaxy, only 4000 light years away from us in the constellation of Sepens (the snake), which is one eighth of the distance to the centre of our galaxy.

Paul Budnitz, the Kidrobot founder, has created a high-end bike that should last a lifetime. There are two models available; the No1 and No2 bikes are both handmade in the United States.At the heart of both models is a Titanium Cantilever frame that's said to be as light as carbon fiber, stronger than steel, and rust and corrosion-proof. The frame's curved tube bends under pressure to absorb road shock.

Samsung has announced four new Galaxy Android-based devices, and has also come up with a new naming system for all Galaxy smartphones to simplify things for consumers. Or to make them more complicated. It really depends on how you look at it. The four new phones, the Galaxy W, Galaxy M Pro, Galaxy Y and Galaxy Y Pro, all run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and fall under the new naming system, or the “SRWMY” scale.

A pro dolly system can be quite pricey. If you want the look of high-end cinematography but not the price, check out CineSkates, a set of wheels that connect to a Joby GorillaPod Focus portable tripod and Ballhead X mount and allow you to get those professional-looking panning shots. The wheels attach to the GorillaPod using a patent pending Cinetics Connect attachment.

Logitech has released a Mac edition of the K750, complete with command keys and the eject key, and features four different hues. The 1/3 -inch thick keyboard works using 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity via a small Unifying receiver, so Bluetooth fans will be disappointed. Yes, you’re going to have to give up a USB port to a dongle, which may be a dealbreaker to some.